Cardboard debate!

[Easy Ears]

Ok, so there is a Cardboard debate....is it healthy or unhealthy for a rabbit to eat?

I have a friend that does it, but she hasn't had much luck with her rabbits the past month. But she HAS been raising rabbits for maybe a year or two.

Then when my rabbits had pinworm, and I took them to a friend of mine (Recent acquaintance) she is a retired blind veterinarian, and raises rabbits. (The real vet was at her house to euthanize some cats, so I met the vet there while she was in town, to deworm my rabbits.) And when she found out I sometimes put cardboard in their cages she got very upset saying: "What do you think cardboard is made of? CHEMICALS!"

What's everyone's opinion? And please state if you have let your rabbits chew/eat it or not.

thanks.

Easy Ears

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Manufacturing a corrugated cardboard box begins with the pulping of wood chips in the kraft (sulfate) process. First, tree trunks are stripped of bark and torn into small chips. Next, these chips are placed in a large, high-pressure tank called a batch digester, where they are cooked in a solution, or liquor, made of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and several other ionic compounds such as sulfates, sulfides, and sulfites. These strongly alkaline chemicals dissolve the lignin, the glue-like substance that holds the individual wood fibers together in a tree trunk.

Corn starch glue is used to bond the corrugated medium to the liner sheets.

Read more: http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Corruga ... z3HBxsm7sL

Sulfates are mineral salts containing sulfur. Sulfites are a common preservative in many foods, but some people are allergic to them. I'm not sure what sulfides are, but I believe they are in the same family.

 

[MaggieJ]

I've never noticed my rabbits actually eating cardboard. They chew it, tear it, shred it but judging by the mess of scraps they leave behind they don't really eat it. I've never had a health problem with rabbits that could be attributed to ingestion of cardboard, so this is not something I would worry about.

 

[Miss M]

Same here, they mostly just shred the living daylights out of it, and have a blast doing it. I'm pretty sure they do eat some, but they've never had any issues. I didn't know until now that all those chemicals were used on the paper. I imagine at some point it has to be rinsed or neutralized.

Still, my bunnies love boxes.

 

[Prisma]

I've never had an issue, there are some that eat it some that just rip to shreds. I don't use cardboard with odd coloring or lots of glue, always look for the ones with non-toxic label on them. Considering every thing else (and what some of the toys that pet places sell are made of), I think it is a much healthier (and cheaper) alternative.

 

[Zass]

I don't give the buns cardboard boxes routinely, but, it really is a great toy for a doe who's gone into "destroyer" mode.
The will often scratch and tear and burrow right through the bottom of the box, and then turn the whole thing to shreds. If a saw one actually eating the box, I'd take it away.

 

[michaels4gardens]

as long as you feed a good grass hay [like timothy or coastal]for long stem fiber, and don't use coated boxes, or boxes heavily dyed with dark color dyes, cardboard will not be much of a problem to rabbits. They enjoy munching on them, and playing in them.-- JMHO